In the aerospace industry, as well as other industries, utilizing critically important structural members, repair of damaged structural members is increasingly being performed using composite repair. Composite repair refers to the repair of a damaged structure (e.g., an aluminum aircraft wing panel having a damaged area) by adhesively bonding a composite material, such as a multiple ply composite material, to the damaged structure.
After the structure has been composite-repaired and is put back into service, the integrity of the composite-repaired structure must generally be monitored. Periodically, these composite-repaired structures undergo non-destructive evaluation and inspection (NDE/I) to ensure the composite repair is not damaged or otherwise failing.
Conventional NDE/I techniques utilize eddy-current, ultrasound, thermal imaging, laser, X-ray, etc. All of these techniques require substantial accessibility to the structure to be evaluated and inspected. In aircraft structure evaluation and inspection, for example, performance of conventional NDE/I requires disassembly of the aircraft structure(s) to gain access to the inspection article. In some cases of composite-repaired structural inspection, such as inspection of a C-130 outer wing fuel tank, it requires upwards of 1300 man-hours to disassemble the aircraft structure to gain access to the inspection article for conventional NDE/I.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an apparatus and method for non-destructive evaluation and inspection of a repaired structure that reduces or eliminates the need for substantial accessibility in order to monitor, evaluate and/or inspect the repaired structure. Further, there exists a need for an apparatus and method for NDE/I of intact composite-repaired structures, thus reducing or eliminating the need for disassembly of the composite-repaired structure or article from the overall structure.